Introduction to Unity

This chapter from Unity Game Development in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself, 2nd Edition shows you how to choose and install a Unity license. Once that is installed, you learn how to create new projects as well as open existing ones. You open the powerful Unity editor and examine its various components. Finally, you learn to navigate a scene using mouse controls and keyboard commands. This chapter is meant to be hands-on, so download Unity while reading and follow along.

This hour focuses on getting you ready to rock and roll in the Unity environment. We start by looking at the different Unity licenses, choosing one, and then installing it. Once that is installed, you learn how to create new projects as well as open existing ones. You open the powerful Unity editor, and we examine its various components. Finally, you learn to navigate a scene using mouse controls and keyboard commands. This chapter is meant to be hands-on, so download Unity while reading and follow along.

Installing Unity

To begin using Unity, you first need to download and install it. Software installation is a pretty simple and straightforward process these days, and Unity is no exception. Before we can install anything, though, we need to look at the two available Unity licenses: Unity Personal and Unity Professional. Unity Personal is free and more than sufficient to complete all the examples and projects in this book. In fact, Unity Personal contains everything you need to make games commercially, up to an annual revenue of $100,000! If you’re lucky enough to start earning more than this, or you want access to Unity Pro’s advanced features (mainly aimed at teams), then you can always upgrade in the future.

Downloading and Installing Unity

For the purposes of this chapter, we will assume you are sticking with the Unity Personal license. If you went with the Professional version, the process will be very similar, only deviating when it comes to time to choose the license. When you are ready to begin downloading and installing Unity, follow these steps:

Run the installer and follow the prompts as you would with any other piece of software.

When prompted, be sure to leave the Unity 5, Web Player, and Standard Assets check boxes checked (see Figure 1.1). It is OK to install the Example Project if you have space; it won’t affect your experience of the book.

If you already have a Unity account, you may be asked to login with it. If you don’t yet have a Unity account, follow the instructions to create one. You will need access to your email to verify your address.

That’s it! Unity installation is now complete.

NOTE: Supported Operating Systems and Hardware

To use Unity, you must be using a Windows PC or a Macintosh computer. Although it is possible to build your projects to run on a Linux machine, the Unity editor itself will not. Your computer must also meet the minimum requirements outlined here (taken from the Unity website at the time of writing):

Windows: XP SP2 or later. Mac OS X: Intel CPU and Snow Leopard 10.8 or later. Note that Unity was not tested on server versions of Windows and OS X.

Graphics card with DirectX 9 (Shader Model 2.0) capabilities. Any card made since 2004 should work.

Using occlusion culling requires a GPU with occlusion query support (some Intel GPUs do not support that).

Note that these are minimum requirements.

CAUTION: Internet Links

All Internet links are current as of the time of this writing. Web locations do change sometimes, though. If the material you are looking for is no longer provided at the links we give you, a good Internet search should turn up what you are looking for.